Medical Malpractice

Failure to Diagnose

$7,400,000.00 settlement on behalf of a 60 year old woman who became paralyzed inboth legs and one arm after her doctors failed to diagnose an infection in her spine.

This 60 year old lady called her doctor complaining of a stiff neck. He prescribedmuscle relaxants without seeing her. A few days later she went to his office because themedicine upset her stomach, so much she couldn’t take it. He examined her and gaveher a different muscle relaxant. The following week, the pain in her neck was worse andhe sent her to a doctor specializing in physical therapy. He ordered an MRI on the firstvisit. The MRI showed there could be an infection, and the radiologist recommendedcertain blood tests. Even though the blood tests showed the possibility of infection in thespine, he sent her back to her general practice doctor with a recommendation that she bereferred to a Rheumatologist.

The Rheumatologist did more blood tests and eliminated any rheumatologic diseaseas the cause of her pain. Then, the rheumatologist referred her to an orthopedist. Theorthopedist didn’t do any tests, but decided her pain wasn’t caused by an infection andgave her steroids (the worse thing to do if it’s an infection) for the neck pains. The paingot so bad that her husband brought her to an emergency room of a local hospital. Atthe hospital, she complained of a new finding, numbness in her hands. Since she wasunder the active care of an orthopedist, the nurse called the orthopedist’s office andwas told to give pain killers and more steroids and send her home. The next day, therheumatologist’s office gave her yet another injection of pain killers and sent her home.The pain got so bad that 3 days after the emergency room visit, her husband took her to adifferent hospital where they diagnosed the infection and operated on her, but it was toolate to save her legs and one arm, and they are paralyzed.